spectre56

Day 2 of Aero Phys. More classes on life support stuff. Also got to go into the altitude chamber to test mask functions; we'll go "up to altitude" in a couple days, pretty sweet. We also did egress training. Ended the day with a test: everyone passed so that was good. One down, 7 to go or something like that...taking it one at a time. Blues tomorrow and boldface/ops limits. Hopefully everyone will pass...we'll see!

Day 1 of Aerospace Physiology...sweet. Not too much done today; although, we do get to wear flight suits for most of this, so that's a big plus. We did a bunch of Aero Phys inprocessing and got more briefs from various people (Health and Wellness Center and various instructors). Had some classes over local area survival and learned basic SABC (self aid buddy care), what plants you can and cannot eat, how to protect yourself in a survival situation and signaling. We went out to practice with the signal flares and, to be honest, I was really disappointed. When I did this stuff for the Marines, we got to set off every kind of flare we had...here, we set off one and used the signaling mirror. I was disappointed in the apparent lack of training, but there isn't much I can do about it; plus, I was happy to get out of the classroom, even if only for a little bit. Tomorrow is egress training! I still tell myself every day how lucky I am to be in the position that I'm in and doing what I've dreamt about for years.

Went to the airshow this weekend...AWESOME! If any pilots reading this were there, it was amazing. Saw lots of cool aircraft (just like most airshows) and got to look around some of them...pretty sweet. I'm not going to say much about it, except that it was probably one of the better airshows that I've been to. I thought the F-22/F-16/F-15/P-51 show was one of the highlights in my opinion: I had never seen that in person and it was great! The Blue Angels were there and, as was mentioned in one of the threads, only 5 jets flying: 3 in the main formation and 2 solos. I've seen them many times and they never cease to impress. Good weekend, Aerospace Physiology is this week, should be good times.

Day 3 was flight physicals. We showed up at 7 and I was out of there before noon. Not too shabby. I thought it was much "easier" than the one at Brooks: not quite as intensive and it seemed like it was just a diagnostic to make sure that nothing had changed since the initial flying class I. Looking forward to the weekend; going to go to the airshow up in San Antonio, should be a good time!

I don't know about davidg, but I rolled my ankle at Marine OCS and it didn't heal very quickly so they gave me the boot. I suppose you can do alot to prevent injuries at OCS, but you are constantly running on gravel roads, in the mud and up and down the hills in Virginia so something will usually give no matter what you do to prevent it.

Day 1 and 2 were pretty tame compared to what I imagine is coming our way in the not too distant future. Both days were filled with briefings by just about every agency on base: from Equal Opportunity, to Services, to the Mental Health Clinic and how to handle stress, etc. Not too bad overall. We got issued our pubs today...I'm no tree hugger, but several trees died just to make one set of pubs for one person, not to mention a whole class and 15 classes a year; i'm really ok with it. I had to go get binders for it all and now I get to figure out how to group them together. Then we get to incorporate all the changes into them...oh what a joy that is! We have flight physicals tomorrow, and from what I hear, it will be a short day...we'll see! Anyway, i'm excited to be in pilot training and I keep telling myself, dude, you're in pilot training! What an awesome opportunity and experience!

One week closer to starting, and i'm pretty much ready to go (I hope). I've been completing checklists, getting all my flight gear and all that good stuff. Trying to get cable set up...what a pain in the ass. I decided to go with Time Warner (whom i've heard is not so good in Texas) and the tech who came out to install the stuff was from some other company that Time Warner contracted out...he didn't have a clue what was going on. It's like they gave him a box and said install this at this address, and no questions were asked. Well, I ordered an HD DVR and he came out with a regular DVR; he said they didn't have any of the HD ones, whatever. I went with regular cable and when the guy comes back out a few days later to install the stuff, the box that he brings in says "HDDVR" on the front...WTF!! I now hate Time Warner. In other news, a buddy of mine in my class just got bumped for something that I consider stupid. The Air Force doesn't agree with me, and I understand where they are coming from, but i'm still bummed (and so is he). I have a mask fitting on monday, and then it's down to the wire! I'm still excited to be in pilot training (almost)!

I was supposed to get here on a tuesday because the monday was a holiday, but since it was a holiday, MPF at my casual base would be closed, so they had me leaving the saturday before I was supposed to get here. So it only took me 4 hours-ish to get here and had to stay in TLF for about a week. Turns out the TLFs are nicer than the houses (in my opinion).

Thanks! I'll need all the support I can get!

I checked in today and it turned out to be pretty uneventful. Pretty much your typical base inprocessing stuff. I got a couple lengthy checklists that I need to complete by next week, but that should be easy. I also got a house on base - those who have been here know - the place we got was, well, less than exceptional. I have a queen size bed and it barely fits in my bedroom. They told me I have a floorplan with one of the most square feet, but it's all in the kitchen...the living room and all 3 bedrooms are tiny. Oh well, i'll get used to it; i'll be too busy most of the time to notice anyway. I'm still pretty excited to get started!

Just a little update for those still reading this. I made it through ASBC and got back home to be on casual for about a month before heading down to Laughlin this weekend. I'm nervous and excited all at the same...I finally get a shot at doing something I've wanted to do since I was little. I'll get there this weekend and report next week, so I'll have something else to put on here then. Wish me luck that none of my crap gets broken/stolen/etc on the way down there!

I know that there are less than a dozen slots for OSI in a given year for the whole of ROTC. A girl at my det got one a few years back and she had to go interview with an OSI Detachment and do an internship with them the year before she commissioned. I hear that if you don't do that, you can bet that OSI is not in your future (for ROTC).

haha, nah...I will get more than you, though! <evil laugh>

So I broke down and got a CAC reader for use at home. Worked great on my PC, but I bought a Macbook and can't get it to work. Anyone use theirs on a Mac, successfully?

Congratulations on T-1s! I hope to be in your shoes about this time next year. I've been reading your blog since you started IFS and it's awesome to see your progression! Congrats again.

This has been talked about a lot. 1. Slower paced: think self paced (more or less) vice cramming it down your throat 2. They do do casual, and go to IFS when there is a class opening along with other UPT base-bound folks 3. About 1 in 4 chance of getting it (4 UPT bases)...maybe less (could be off, someone correct me if I'm wrong) I put Whiting as number 1 and got Laughlin.

This is par for the course for John Wylie Price. He's always like this. definately agree

Take this for what it's worth, but I talked to a tech at optometry at my base and they said basically you go talk to the flight doc to get briefed up on the program and they send you to optometry to get a prescription. After that, you wear the contacts for a week and you're good to fly with them in. I asked the guy I was talking to if it was different for someone going to UPT in about 3 months: he said just come in for 1 week, 1 month and 3 or 6 month (I can't remember which) checkups and you should be fine. Remember, this is coming from a different base, so they may not know everything that's going on. The guy at optometry made it sound like it was fairly simple to get them...that concurs with others in my squadron that are on the program.

They don't need a wing like badge to "feel adequate" or whatever...what's wrong with the badge that the comm guys have now? The problem with the space guys and comm guys and whomever else wants to change their current badge to wings is that it lessens the significance of hard earned pilot/nav/abm wings because everyone and their mother has a badge or wings on their chest. All this coming from a guy where aircrew/jumpers/scuba guys are the only ones with anything on their chest. My .02 EDIT: I'm not saying other jobs like space and comm dudes aren't important

It took a few weeks for me (a couple of years ago) and I got around 600 bucks.

From how it was explained to me was, once you contracted (for non scholarship types) after field training, the two years (or however long you have until commission) between contracting and commissioning counted as 2 inactive years. You'd have to do 4 active once you commission and then another 2 inactive at the end. Course, this may have changed since when I went through. ROTC time doesn't count for any anything, even though you are "enlisted" while you are in it.

Oh, and a more important lesson learned: DO NOT GRADE YOURSELF, LET THE INSTRUCTOR GRADE YOU!!! I thought I majorly screwed up on my final check ride (went out of the area) and my IP didn't knock me for it. I kept the above advice in mind and just flew the rest of my profile the way I knew I could and it all worked out.

Alright, well, I expected to have more lessons learned, but I don't. Feel free to add on to this as necessary. In no particular order... - Relax: I was super nervous going there. Don't be. Everyone is very helpful and friendly especially while checking in, but also throughout the whole time I was there. Everyone is really there to help you make it through. - If you don't like really hard or fluffy pillows, bring your own. - Bring some electronic entertainment: XBox, PS, Wii, etc goes a long way and your classmates will appreciate it. - Go somewhere else on the weekends. Me and my buddy went to either Colorado Springs or Denver every single weekend we were there. You are generally not spending much money on food and nothing on lodging, so get out; if for nothing else, to get a room with a window! We stayed at the Hyatt Place: excellent! - Drive and stay in Colorado Springs the night before your RNLT date if you are coming from far away. You have to get there in blues and you don't want to be driving for like 10 hours with those damn things on. I say drive because it sucks (for me) to bum rides off of everyone all the time. - Learn the boldface and ops limits backward, forward, upside down and in no order in particular before you get there. Also learn the black items on the ops limits: you'll use them just enough to know them by memory. Learn everything you can in the In Flight Guide as far as the departures and arrivals go: it may not make a whole lot of sense, but if you are familiar with them, it helps immensely.

So, Wednesday I was initially scheduled for one flight around lunch, but the weather was acting up a little bit, so a priority list was made up that consisted of folks that were behind, and I was on it! So, I'm eating breakfast and I get told that I'm double turning and my first brief is in like 30 minutes! I go brief up my 604 with a different IP than originally planned and the flight went pretty decent. I get back and sure enough, I'm supposed to be briefing AGAIN with the same IP for my 605. It went ok, but I definitely was not 100% and my IP could tell. He still thought I did pretty good overall, which is very good. That meant checkride on Thursday! Thursday comes and the weather tanks, so no one flew that day. Oh well, another rain delay and checkride Friday! Friday comes and weather is good, so checkride is a go! I go brief it up and step to fly. The flight went pretty good; I messed up a few things, but I think my IP let those things slide. He passed me and I got to go home! So after about 4 hours of outprocessing (because our flight commander was busy) me and my buddy got the hell out of Doss! After I get back into the swing of things, I'll be making another post in a couple of days containing some lessons learned from the whole ordeal.

Flew twice today: first was my area solo, 602, then the second was the 603. Area solo was pretty fun! Kinda boring once I got into the area simply because the only maneuvers we are allowed to do are steep turns and VOR navigation stuff. Overall, a very fun flight. Second flight was ok...wind was picking up and it was hot. Nothing eventful about it, just another flight. Only 3 more flights left!!